


A Beautiful Friendship

by StellarLibraryLady



Series: Star Trek Incandescent Hearts [5]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: AU, Career Advancement, Chocolate Reference, Cocktail Party, Explicit Language, Friendship, Gen, Incandescent Hearts (Star Trek Series), One Shot, Spock & Idioms, Top Brass, idioms, spones - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 19:03:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9916646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellarLibraryLady/pseuds/StellarLibraryLady
Summary: Jim Kirk tries to further his career by impressing top brass at a cocktail party.  Then he realizes what is really important to him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Spock and McCoy are on their best behavior until ALMOST the very last.

The Vulcan known as Spock knew he was out of his element. This was a cocktail party for Star Fleet officers, most of whom seemed to be Earthlings. None of the others were Vulcans. If there had been, Spock would have gravitated toward that person or, preferably, persons so he could be in a group of similar beings and yet not have to carry on small talk. Small talk eluded Spock. It made no sense; it generally had no relevance; it furthered no goals. No wonder then that it had been thus dubbed ’small talk,’ for it indeed held little weight or consequence in the larger scheme of matters. But, yet, here he stood, trying not to show his discomfort, trying not to engage in ’small talk,’ and yet wishing desperately for someone with whom he could engage in this ‘small talk.’

Why his captain had dragged him here was a mystery. Unless it was for the simple reason that Spock was James T. Kirk’s First Officer, and protocol demanded the echelon of Kirk’s command to be present. And Kirk liked to show Spock off.

Spock had not seen Kirk since they had arrived. Correction, he had seen Kirk flitting from group to group, “working the room,” “casing the joint,” “checking out the action,” “getting the lay of the land,” and other such idioms that had flown off Kirk’s lips with the mistaken belief that Spock had understood what he was talking about. And this was all being done so Kirk could “grease the right palms,“ “stroke the right egos,“ and “press the right flesh.“ All that Kirk’s explanation had succeeded in doing was to confuse the literal Vulcan. 

What would happen, for instance, if Kirk tried to do all this, but could only reach the left side of a person’s bodily features? Would Kirk’s advance into military society fail? Would Kirk and his officers have to leave the cocktail party ‘covering each other’s backs?’ 

That idiom about the backs had once been explained to Spock at great length by the Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise. Or Dr. McCoy had tried to explain it, but had managed in the explanation for Spock to use other idioms that had only muddied the field. Ah, another of those pesky idioms! McCoy kept using idioms to explain idioms. The convoluted explanation with its downward spiraling loss of coherence had baffled the Vulcan completely. Add to that the deepening red on McCoy’s face as he fought not to lose his temper had caused Spock to fear for the doctor’s immediate health. But by this time, McCoy was determined to make himself understood by Spock. It had gotten to be a matter of principle with the good doctor. But his language further alarmed Spock. McCoy’s speech had descended from consistency into spittle laced sputtering. Even the blank look on Spock’s face seemed to anger McCoy. Both combatants had left the field exhausted and befuddled that day.

Be that as it may, Kirk had gaily strung out the idioms to Spock this afternoon before jumping madly into the social melee at the cocktail party. Spock had heard all of the clichés and all of the idioms that seemed to spew from Kirk’s mouth like lava from a volcano. Lava would have made more sense. It had certain kinetic and natural laws it operated by. It had an intrinsic purpose for being. It had a certain, well documented effect on the environment. Not so this ‘small talk’ that Kirk proposed to engage in. All in all, it was very exasperating for a certain Vulcan standing alone on the sidelines and feeling quite out of the loop.

Another idiom, Spock thought with a silent sigh. He had refrained from asking Dr. McCoy about Kirk’s mission involving other people‘s bodily parts. Spock didn’t know if he could stand seeing McCoy’s look of bewilderment before he audibly caught his breath and launched into a tirade that would impress the gods on Mount Olympus. After the ‘covering each others' back’ discussion, Spock thought it prudent to avoid asking McCoy for clarification. McCoy tended to so endanger his health during their ‘discussions’ that Spock often grew quite alarmed. 

So now, Spock held his tongue and let McCoy drift away on his own agenda into the maze of cocktail drinkers and tiny foods nibblers. Spock would also like to quiz McCoy about why people ate before they ate, but figured that amounted to why people washed dishes before putting those same dishes into a dish washer. 

That was not to say that Spock was not curious about whatever Jim had been declaring to him and McCoy. Jim had seemed so self assured of his mission. And McCoy had apparently understood. For McCoy had simply grunted and half smiled at Kirk. Apparently, he had understood Jim, or didn’t care. Whichever, McCoy left Spock alone with his own musings.

But Spock continued to wonder about Kirk’s speech patterns. Where did these Earthlings get these quaint vestiges of speech? Why couldn’t Earthlings use verbal communication signals that were logical?

One thing, though, they were interesting patterns. They didn’t seem to mean a damn thing, but they were interesting.

Spock looked down at what for him was an ineffective alcoholic drink. The Earthlings at the cocktail party seemed to be becoming more animated and verbose by the consumption of the distilled grains and fruit nectars that were freely being offered and consumed. Spock wondered idly if there was any chocolate lying about so that he could at least numb his senses from these bizarre proceedings unfolding before him. Such strange rituals that these Earthlings observed.

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy sighed to himself. Another boring evening while his friend, classmate, ex-roommate, and now commanding officer had a helluva good time at this monkey parade of top brass. McCoy knew his purpose for being here, and he really didn’t mind. He and Spock were arm candy, Jim’s way of saying to captains with more years under their belts that, Hey, I’m as good as you are! I’ve got a ship, the Enterprise, for fucking sake! AND, a fucking Vulcan, for crying out loud! AND, the best C.M.O. in the fleet! 

McCoy knew that Jim needed to be able to do that for his own self image. Jim made it up to him in other ways, so McCoy couldn’t complain. Just being around Jim Kirk was exciting enough. Just breathing the same air as Kirk breathed tended to quicken the pulse. Hell, Kirk brought excitement into a room. He brought sunshine. But it was quicksilver, with no substance to it. Other officers knew it, though. And Jim Kirk knew it, too.

Bones had sensed it all before, the reception that Jim got from the other officers. It wasn’t really anything that anyone said. It was just the feeling one got when other officers were around Kirk. They didn’t like him. Or maybe they treated him with little respect, because he didn‘t seem all that serious. He didn’t seem to respect the job himself, or place the correct amount of awe to it as he should. That tended to piss other people off, because they worked as hard as they could to get only half as far as Jim did with so little effort. McCoy could understand that. Those other officers were jealous of Kirk, and with good reason.

Jim Kirk was lucky with missions. He seemed to fall through situations. Success clung to him, and all else, including danger, bad timing, and formidable adversaries, sloughed off him like so much dust off his Star Fleet uniform. McCoy would probably be jealous of him (for that’s what it boiled down to) if he wasn’t so damn in awe of Kirk and just so damn in love with him. And that was in love like almost hero worship, not the other guy/guy thing. If Kirk ever wanted that other, though, with McCoy, McCoy would probably go along with it. Like McCoy said, he loved the man. And he knew that Kirk loved him back. 

One reason Kirk loved him was because McCoy knew one thing about Jim Kirk that most people didn’t. For all of his bluster, Jim Kirk was scared a lot of the time. But the damn fool never knew when to quit. When he was in trouble, he had to try something. He wouldn’t lay down and die just because it all seemed hopeless. He wasn’t allowed that luxury.

Because Jim Kirk had that constant example of his late father always before him. It’s difficult to be the son of a hero, especially a dead hero, especially a legendary dead hero. His father had gone out in a blaze of glory, virtually, and there is no way anyone can successfully compete against that. 

And so Kirk, as skilled and competent as he was, would always feel inadequate to his father‘s image. And McCoy ached to tell Jim that he was as good as George Kirk, maybe even better in some respects. But there was no way that Jim would ever believe him. How it would have hurt George Kirk to know that in dying to save his child, he had left that child with a permanent feeling of inadequacy. There was no way that Jim could compete with his father to make that final, traumatic break from the childhood nest. George had always seemed more of a hero than a father, and larger than life he would always remain for Jim. 

But McCoy should talk, he thought. He had enough issues to keep a dozen psychiatrists busy for months. But his problem wasn’t with his father, except with the father‘s death. McCoy had been blessed with wonderful parents. Leonard had had a storybook childhood. Maybe that had given their son a false sense that Life would always be nice to him. He certainly knew better now! Failed marriages. A child he rarely saw. 

He ached for his daughter’s presence, but he couldn’t be dragging her around in space. Besides, what sort of life would she have up here, watching her father work and interrelating with his colleagues and a handful of friends? If there were times that routine bored even McCoy, what in the world would it do to Joanna? She needed her own life with people her own age. She needed to be her own person.

 

Jim Kirk put his drink to his lips to give himself a moment to collect his thoughts and to try to get this social event back to his advantage. He was surrounded by a batch of barracudas in evening clothes. These people were vultures. The only thing that kept them from sharpening their teeth on his bones was the thin veil of decorum that blanketed this event. Thank goodness for the rules of society! They didn’t, however, seem to cover common courtesy or the Christian doctrine of helping your fellow man. No, it was every man for himself. Claw yourself to the top. Jesus Christ would’ve been just one more pacifist to be stepped on as the path upward steepened.

What Kirk wouldn’t give to be back out in space with the Enterprise at his command and outsmarting the wiliest foe! The foe had to be wily, though, and worthy, or else it wouldn’t count. Tigers don’t respect sheep for their wit and intellect, only for the dinner they can provide. Kirk knew that rule out in space and could win in that sector.

But not at this cocktail party. These people were out of his league. Even the women with their sweet smiles and charming language had cunning eyes and incisor teeth filed to needle points. Everyone was out for himself, and Jim Kirk looked like a filet mignon. Jim Kirk should have realized that he wasn’t the only person who would’ve shown up with armed weapons and a cute butt to peddle.

Kirk looked around. Where were his friends? Where were the guys who understood him? Where were the ying and yang to his thinking? The logical and emotional to Kirk’s ethical? Where were Spock and McCoy?

Someone said something to him. One of the barracudas. He was certain it was someone important, someone who could help him in his climb upward, but suddenly Kirk wasn’t interested in them.

He wanted to find his friends.

 

“About finished with that drink, Bones?” Kirk asked with a flirty smile.

“Jim! Well, hi! I didn’t see you walking up!”

“Yeah. I saw you busy looking out the window. Anything interesting out there?”

“The stars are just coming out. It’s going to be a beautiful night to see the heavens in all of their glory.”

“And what are we doing here, anyway, huh?” Kirk asked with a smirk. 

McCoy gave Kirk a thoughtful look. “I thought you wanted this.” He nodded toward the party. “I thought you needed this.”

“I thought wrong.” Kirk nodded toward the outside view. “There’s more marvels out there than anything I’ve seen in here.”

“Captain,” Spock said as he approached. “Have you ‘cased the joint’ sufficiently?”

“I believe so, Mr. Spock.”

“And what are your deductions, Captain?”

“It’s going to be a beautiful night to observe the stars, Mr. Spock.”

“Is that so?” Spock asked with a raised eyebrow. “And what brought you to that conclusion?”

“Why, it was something that Dr. McCoy observed and relayed to me.”

Spock shot a wise look at McCoy. “Well, he is an astute observer, Captain.”

“That he is, Mr. Spock.”

“Why, thank you, gentlemen. I am honored.”

“Well, come along, gentlemen,“ Kirk said. “Let’s call it an early evening then and get back to something we understand and is really important. We‘ll find something interesting to do back in our quarters.”

“That would be to my liking, too, Captain,” Spock agreed as they threaded through the cocktail crowd. 

“I‘ll like the honesty of it,” Kirk said.

McCoy shot him a look. “No more having to be on our good behavior?”

Kirk inhaled a deep, cleansing breath. “No more having to be on our good behavior. I want you two to be as natural and at ease around me and each other as you normally are.”

"Good. Spock and I separated so that we could keep your order of staying on our good behavior. It was all rather boring by myself, though. I tried to mix, but it didn't work out so well. Those people were out to impress each other. When they found out that I was a relative nobody, then they were through with me. Learning about me and making a new friend were so low on their list of goals for the evening that those items didn't even exist for those people. I'm glad to be out of there."

"Me, too," Kirk echoed.

"Even to the extent, and I know I'm going to hate myself for saying this, but, even to the extent that I missed Mr. Spock's company."

Spock turned a rare smile on McCoy. It was rare because it was not mixed with irony or condescension. "Why, thank you, Dr. McCoy. I missed your unique form of verbalization, also."

"I'll take that as a compliment." McCoy frowned. "I think."

Kirk smiled. "I missed you both."

Spock's genuine smile continued. Contentment even seemed to be mixed into it. “Perhaps Dr. McCoy would like another lesson in three dimensional chess this evening,” Spock proposed.

“Perhaps I’ll just watch you and Jim play,” McCoy answered. “And make sure that neither of you cheats.”

“And do you believe that you are well versed enough in the game to determine that, Doctor?”

“I’ll give it a damn good try, Vulcan!”

“As you wish, Doctor,” Spock said with a knowing smile. Then he turned to Kirk. “And what did you find out at the cocktail party, Captain?”

“That there’s no place like home.”

“Wizard of Oz,” McCoy muttered. “Judy Garland’s last speech.”

“And did you learn anything else, Captain?” Spock, ever curious, asked.

“Again, I learned what is really important. And another movie quote expresses it nicely.“ Kirk looked at each of them with his own knowing smile. “As Humphrey Bogart said at the end of ‘Casablanca’, ‘Louie, I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.’”

“Quite apropos, Captain,” Spock said as the three walked out the front door. Then Spock turned to McCoy. “Dr. McCoy, can you perhaps tell us to whom Humphrey Bogart said that?”

“And I suppose you can?!” McCoy snapped.

“You suppose correctly, Doctor.”

“Well, hell, I could, too, if I went around with a computer shoved up my ass!”

Kirk grinned as the other two bickered behind him. McCoy and Spock were only two, but they were worth more to Kirk than all of those barracudas in evening clothes back at that cocktail party.

Hell, these two were worth more than the whole universe to him.

They were the whole universe to him.

They were his family.

And thank heaven he had finally realized it.

**Author's Note:**

> I do not have a computer ingeniously concealed as Mr. Spock may have, but I can tell you that Humphrey Bogart said his famous line to Claude Rains.  
> I own nothing dealing with Star Trek, including story lines and/or characters. I own nothing dealing with "Wizard of Oz" and/or "Casablanca" or the estates of the late Judy Garland and/or the late Humphrey Bogart and/or the late Claude Rains.  
> 


End file.
